2013: The Year of Ambition

2013 is right around the corner and we as business owners better be planning to scale big in 2013 if you ever want to grow.

Many of us can find it hard to focus on growth when we are either trying to sustain or start our business. Our team is developing a three million square foot lifestyle destination in Atlanta and we have met some serious opportunities for growth. For the past year we have covered just about every aspect of construction, financing, and operations, all while trying to sustain our personal lives. We are now in the implementation stage working to negotiate deals with land owners and investors. It has been a fast year and we would have not made it to this point if we didn’t do some extensive and ambitious planning at the end of 2011. Yes, we have been given the “are you insane” face and the “that will never happen in a million years.” But we stuck to our guns and now we are prepping to start construction in early 2013.

So, if you want to scale or start your project in 2013, it’s time to get an ambitious plan or evaluate your current one. It’s time to AIM! Yes it is an acronym. Activate, Innovate, Motivate.

Activate the Idea

Get ambitious with your idea. Take it and multiply it by 100,000. Our idea is to develop a global lifestyle destination that will have guests from all over the world. We are going to have over 30 million annual visitors at a three million square foot property.

Innovate the Strategy

Okay, so you have your ambitious idea- now it’s time for a strategy. First, put a deadline on your end goal. Then, work your way back from that date to the present listing all of the milestones needed to achieve the goal. Start by researching similar grand projects and how they started. We are going to host our grand opening in early 2014. To achieve this, we have to construct the building for the grand opening, which requires financing and for financing we had to find a location. What projects did we look to for inspiration and guidance? Two of the most famous getaways, Disney World and Las Vegas.

Motivate the Team

How can people become involved with the project? How are they going to buy into the concept? Our team has to consist of staff, investors, and governmental agencies. So we created a development plan highlighting the benefits for each to participate. Then, we tackled getting them motivated by contacting these entities and gauging their interest. Some have been enthused while others not so much.

This is just a consolidated method to you begin the planning process. It will be an extensive journey, but remember to have fun and come up with some insane ideas. There will be some steps that you miss but you can’t plan for everything. If we didn’t think ambitiously we would be in the position we are now to make such an impact.

My motto is to live ambitious and I am doing that through the development of lifestyle projects. Follow my journey to become a Billionaire by 21 at www.cwesleydaniel.com or @CWesleyDaniel on Twitter.